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By Alice Gibbs
Senior Reporter
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A woman has issued a warning to others after she was left with serious burns on her face following just 18 minutes of using a tanning machine.
Emma Hoffström lives in Södertälje in Sweden and posted a video sharing the damage to her skin on TikTok on Tuesday, where it has since received more than 2 million views. In the video, Hoffström shared how the moments using the UV tanning machine left her with serious damage on her skin.
Hoffström told Newsweek: "I have just used face tanning once and used it just to try with my friend. It had some kind of malfunction in the machine which made it give off a lot more UV light than you should."
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In the video, she shared how her face burnt after using the machine, leaving her requiring treatment to recover.
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In another video, Hoffström told viewers that she just wanted to try out the tanning machine and didn't know anything about it beforehand. Wearing no sunscreen, she spent just 18 minutes in the booth and explained that she "didn't feel anything during the tanning. It was hot like you were in the sun—but I didn't feel that anything bad would happen or get any alarming feelings."
But not long after the treatment, Hoffström's skin began to feel burnt. "I had to have the burns bandaged for a while," she explained. "Then treatment with creams and painkillers."
A face tanning machine uses reflector lamps that disperse light to tan the face. Smaller than a full-body tanning bed, it uses UVA rays to leave skin tanned.
In the U.S., indoor tanning beds are available, with some restrictions in states saying that you have to be 18 to use the beds.
In Australia, tanning beds were banned in 2016 after a campaign led by health economist at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, associate professor Louisa Gordon.
Research by Gordon and her colleagues found that 281 melanoma cases, 43 deaths, and 2,572 squamous cell carcinomas were attributable to sunbed use in Australia each year before the ban.
"Can't believe people are still using these," said one commenter on the now-viral TikTok post. While another viewer wrote: "When will people stop using tanning beds. Like soo bad for you."
"The technician who let you do that should be held responsible," said another user. "They know better."
"It's never worth it," wrote one TikToker.
One user wrote: "[I] can't imagine the pain you went through. Wishing you a speedy recovery."
Now on the mend although still unaware of how much long-term damage has been done to her skin, Hoffström hopes that sharing her story will help prevent others from making the same mistake.
"I wanted to warn people who might know as little as I did," she explained. "Just a reminder that you can't always fully trust machines and to be careful with your skin. It's really sensitive and especially on your face."
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